Manuski means humanism in Marathi. A term used by Dr B.R.Ambedkar, a great humanist of India. This blog want stimulating debate without any prejudices of caste, religion and nationalism. It is about humanism and human rights. All freethinkers are welcome to contribute and participate in stimulating debates.

Friday, March 01, 2013

Theocracy Via Democracy

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

Consolidation of ‘majority’
community after careful vilification of minorities at different places have
resulted in massive mandates both at the Centre in 1985 as well as in Gujarat
post 2002. Such trends are dangerous but continuously being used by political
parties for their own purposes. India cannot afford to repeat them as it would
only be at the cost of peace and stability of the country.

A fatal incident on this day exactly 11 years back in a nondescript town
of Godhra in Gujarat changed the face of the state and misused by the ruling
elite of the state for its political purposes. On February 27th,
2002, S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express was burnt by the miscreants killing 59
innocent travellers in the train. It was a heinous crime which jolted everyone
who listened and saw the eye witnessed account. After that what happened in
Gujarat is a blot to the democratic governance anywhere in the world. It was
said that that the Godhra’s carnage was instigated by the Muslims and hence the
people had a right to ‘teach’ them a good lesson. For days the state of Gujarat
forgot its ‘rajdharma’ and allowed the anti-social communal elements solidly
supported by the state and its administration to butcher and kill Muslims all
over the state.

The state machinery abdicated its responsibility to act as a protector
for all the people living in the state irrespective of their religion. Instead,
its leader had a field day, vilifying Muslims and instigating the goons and
thugs of the Hindutva variety. In the next fortnight we saw the worst kind of
slaughtering of innocent people in Gujarat with active participation of the
state authorities in connivance with the political thugs who were out rightly
spreading hatred for their political gains.

Over three thousand Muslims were killed in the so-called ‘communal
riots’ which were nothing but organized pogroms by the state. Gujarat state was
systematically isolating Muslims and the power elite there communalized the
entire operation. The relief camps tell the story of the fear in the minds of
Muslims. The goons were given political protection and some of them became
Ministers too but since they were so called upper caste Hindus hence nothing
matter. Contrary to this, Muslims were
targeted by the police and arrested for reacting.

There is no doubt that the incident of Godhra was carnage of innocent
people yet it is the duty of the state to investigate the incident impartially
and protect the people. You cannot allow the Muslims of Ahemedbad, Baroda,
Bharuch and elsewhere to be killed by the religious thugs in the name of ‘retaliation’
for the Godhra carnage. It is sad that
the Indian state has allowed itself to be hijacked and communalized by such
majoritarian tendencies where any crime committed by a criminal belonging to
minority community is painted as the ‘activity’ and ‘thought’ of the community
and hence to ‘rectify’ the champions of ‘Hindu nationalism’ must take to street
and teach them a lesson. Gujarat
incident of a communalized state is not the only one in the history of India
but it continues with our selective targeting and leakages of the information
through media to vitiate the atmosphere. Prior to Gujarat we saw the state
managed pogrom of Sikhs in Delhi in the aftermath of her assassination by those
who happened to be Sikhs. The goons this time belong to the Congress Party but
in their faith and belief they were not different than the thugs of Gujarat who
killed Muslims in the Post Godhra carnage. For years, every Sikh in Delhi had
to bear the brunt of being a ‘terrorist’ and traitor who felt happy when
‘Indira Gandhi was assassinated’.

For years the majoritarian tendencies find ways to violently oppose the
assertion of the minorities and marginalized and tag them. The duty of a
secular state is to handle these issues with great sensitivity and utmost
impartiality. But in these cases and later on many other occasions, Indian
state actually turned out to be a Hindu state which has to ‘honor’ the
sensitivity of the ‘upper castes’ but react violently to the reactions and
assertions of minorities and marginalized. One can compare these things with
violence against Muslims in the aftermath of Ayodhya demolition in 1992. There
have been communal disturbances in different parts of the country including
Mumbai but the perpetrators of these riots only got legitimacy through
manipulating our electoral system. The
so called majority people got power and prestige and legitimized their anger in
the name of ‘national’ ‘sentiments’ or people’s consciousness but our jails
were filled with Muslim youths in the name of terrorism.

It is shocking what our home minister admitted in parliament the other
day replying to question raised by some of the members of parliaments such as Basudeb Acharia of Communist
Party of India ( Marxist) who was backed by RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, SP
suprimo Mulayam Singh Yadav and others. Minister of State for Home Affairs
(MoS) RPN Singh evaded his direct question. He said, "Terrorism has no
colour or religion and if any case of prolonged incarceration of any individual
belonging to any community without any charge sheet against him is brought to
light, the government will take appropriate action to ensure justice."

The minister said that Section
211 of IPC gave a person the right to seek compensation in case he had been
falsely implicated in a case. He said under the Unlawful Activities
(Prevention) Act if a charge sheet is not filed within 180 days against an
arrested person, he is entitled to bail."

In reply, MoS RPN Singh said,
"The National Investigation Agency (NIA), set up after the Mumbai terror
attack, has investigated 52 cases and arrested 334 people since 2009. Out of
the 334, over 200 youths are Muslims. We don't have details on member of
other religions who have been arrested by the NIA on terror charges."

"NIA has filed chargesheet in 29 cases while 23 are under
investigation," the minister said.

It is interesting to note how
the government and the authorities work according to prevailing prejudices in
our system against Muslims. How is it that the Minister has data about the
Muslim arrested youths but not about others. At the one end, the government
continues to inform us that its agencies are doing their best and on the other
side the political authority of the government is being clearly violated by the
communalists inside the intelligence agencies.

How will the government explain
to us the number of arrests made by them in the aftermath of killings of Indira
Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Babari demolition and post Godhra riots. The government
acted fast on individual cases where the Muslim and Sikh individuals were the
‘direct’ perpetrators of the crime but remained mute when they were the victims
of a hate crime instigated by political interest groups resulting in mass
killings of Muslims and Sikhs.

It is not just the government
and its intelligence set up but carefully planned strategy of the Hindu
nationalists to keep the issue of ‘terrorism’ as an offensive so that anybody
who talks of justice to people is termed as ‘traitor’. The issue of Afzal Guru is similar and
the disgraceful way in which his case was handled at least his last moment
resulted in Kashmir feeling alienated. Major political parties including PDP
and National Conference actually have demanded the government to return Maqbool
Bhat and Afzal Guru’s body to their families. Parties like BJP and Congress are
opposed to it making it clear that he was ‘anti national’ and his dead body
would only raise passions. But the hypocracy of both these parties is exposed
when the government does not act with same will in the other cases of death
penalty such as the killers of Rajiv Gandhi and former Punjab Chief Minister
Beant Singh. The Punjab assembly passed resolution against the hanging of the
person who happened to be a Sikh. In fact, many times, SGPC has often glorified
the killers of Indira Gandhi. Similarly, Jayalalitha and Karunanidhi are
together in their opposition of death penalty against the killers of Rajiv
Gandhi as well as the gang members of Veerappan, the notorious sandalwood
smuggler. All of a sudden our sympathies have risen and none oppose commutation
of death penalties into life imprisonment. It becomes an election issue only
when the crime is committed by a ‘Muslim’ and that is why the Congress
government agreed to everything that the Hindutva outfits were demanding. The
only problem at the moment is that there are not many of their fellows waiting
for gallows as that process will take time. Problem is that political parties
are not against death penalty but only wake up when they have to make a
political capital out of it. Therefore, it is time for India to completely
abolish capital punishment so that these politicization of crime stops
immediately.

Some time back a senior army
officer told me that Maoists are our own people and hence the army cannot wage
a war against them. I was amazed because the same idea does not come when the
army battle in Manipur, Meghalaya and Nagaland or Kashmir. Why are the people
in these regions not our ‘brothers’ and ‘sisters’, why no sympathy is generated
for them and the answer lies in the complete communal mindset prevailing in our
system where Muslims, or people from north east are not our own and looked down
in suspicion. Such a stereotyping of communities is dangerous for the
well-being of our society and national integration. India needs to grow up and
speak up against communal agenda of political parties as well as our power
elite which strengthen stereotyping of communities for their own political
benefit. Such unlawful arrests as well as vilification of Muslims in particular
will only alienate them further and help those who want the gap between
different communities grow so that their agendas for a divisive India succeed.
We must stand and counted against such dangerous stereotyping which is against
our national interest. Any political victory after marginalizing the minorities
will not strengthen democracy but will only benefit those who wish to install
Hindu theocracy in India under the garb of democracy.

Followers

About Me

Learning through working. Working at the grassroots made me realise the big difference between those who claim to represent communities as well as the communities themselves. Common man is crushed between the ambitions of various individuals to lead and dominate. The dominant and high numbered communities will always dominate our discourse and the most marginalised are losing in this entire discourse. That is the reason why Mushahar remain at the marginalised and the issue of manual scavenging still not on our top agenda and to eliminate that the community has to decide its own organisations..

I am devoted to freedom of ideas and expression. I personally feel that we in the subcontinent want to dominate and control our discourse and each one of is a ultra nationalist in terms of their caste and community. Nationalism is not just national and political but it is equally in term of religion and caste. I feel each kind of nationalism is a dominant discourse which deny the dissenter a right to speak.

At the end, we all want to listen the truth suitable to us.. we have become expertised in the art of speaking truth of convenience. As long as that remain hall mark of our society and we speak to already converts, this society will remain stagnant, it will always try to control our ideas and choices. We need to oppose any such perception, ideas that want to control our mind and victimise us.

To understand India further, I feel, it is good to do foot walk, ( Padyatras) to various parts of the country. I have so far done it thrice covering nearly 1500-2000 kilometers. It is always interesting to see how people are coping their issues and what is the reason of their exploitation.